干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

The province of Cordoba is located in central Argentina, in a semi-arid region where water is a limited natural resource. Los Molinos reservoir represents an essential source of supply for the capital city (with 1.5 million inhabitants). The use of the water body is multiple, including not only the supply of water for human consumption, but also production of electric power, flood control, irrigation, recreation and touristic activities, with some small settlements existing within the boundaries of the lake. Since three decades back, a deterioration of the water quality has been observed, as well as eutrophication signs and periodic algal blooms. Within the scope of an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research project, a seasonal-and currently monthly-monitoring was started in 1999. In this paper, main sources of phosphorus are identified, as well as their contribution to the total load of the reservoir by means of using the Flux modeling software and indirect calculations. Additionally, hydrodynamic and quality models (Dysrem-Caedym) are also applied, calibrated with field data. Finally, satellite images (Landsat) are used as a tool to develop models of space distribution of quality parameters (chlorophyll-a) in a reflectance function. The combination of remote sensing methods and numerical simulation for the behavior of the system associated to field works will allow to generate new bases for water resources planning and administration, especially on semi-arid regions, such as the Los Molinos reservoir case.